J. F. X. O'Brien

James Francis Xavier O'Brien (13 or 16 October 1828 was an Irish nationalist Fenian revolutionary in the 1860s. He was later elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish Parliamentary Party.

Life Early life

O'Brien was born in Dungarvan, County Waterford to the merchant family of Timothy and Catherine O'Brien.

Early Fenian activity O'Brien was studying divinity in St. John's College, Waterford when he became caught up in the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848. During the summer of 1849, he organised a new revolutionary secret society in Dungarvan. In September 1849, he participated an attack, organised by James Fintan Lalor, on Cappoquin police barracks and evaded arrest,

In 1854 he won a scholarship to study medicine at Queen's College, Galway. However, a year later he left for Paris, with his friend John O'Leary, where he continued his studies, attending the École de Médecine. Health problems did not allow him to graduate, however.

Electoral politics Following his departure from the IRB, O'Brien had focused on commercial activity in Cork. However, in November 1885 was approached by none other than Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, with a proposition. Parnell had previously requested that the Irish National League withdraw the nomination of Pat Nally as their South Mayo candidate in an upcoming election. Nally had been previously arrested and convicted of participating in the "Crossmolina Riot", which had received national press coverage across the United Kingdom. The Mayo branch of the Irish National League wanted to make Nally an MP in protest but Parnell did not like the idea. Instead, Parnell wished to make O'Brien the MP for South MP, trading upon O'Brien's reputation as a Fenian rebel. and as Anti-Parnellite for Cork City from 1895 to 1905. O'Brien was not very active in the Parliament, merely using his position to vote with the Irish Parliamentary Party. However, behind the scenes he held leading positions in the Irish Parliamentary Party as treasurer from 1886.

Following the split in the IPP over Parnell's affair with Mrs. O'Shea, O'Brien joined the anti-Parnellites in the Irish National Federation, and was later the United Irish League of Great Britain (general secretary, 1900–1905).

He died at his London residence (39 Gauden Road, Clapham) on 28 May 1905, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.